A have never been able to loose weight by cycling. Seems like my appetite always overshoots my calories spent. This includes heavy racing and training years ago. Now, older and fatter I have returned to cycling, and still cannot lose weight at 150 miles per week or there-a-bouts. I ride with a HR monitor, generally in ranges of 65 - 85% of my max HR (measured by self test). Then I watch the Biggest Loser TV show, and I notice that the trainers are pushing those folks at what appears to be near or over their LTs. So the question I have is, is it better for weight loss to work at very high HRs, or at lower ones. I have heard of some things where the "experts" have recommended less than optimal levels because of their belief that compliance would be higher at lesser efforts. Kind of like the recent report that walking is not enough, you really need to get the HR up. Or, is it just that at higher HRs you burn more calories in less time, so you burn more off in the same duration of effort.

i also have a heavy appetite after i ride and worry if my hard work all went down the drain. just watch what you eat, after i ride i try to eat a clif bar since whole grains keep you fuller longer or i just munch on peanuts. peanuts usually tricks my mind into thing its full.

I used to believe that the fat burning exercise was the lower intensity workout until I proved myself wrong. I train three days a week for personal fitness and used to have one hard intensity interval and sprint day with high heart rates and the other two aerobic based workouts at a medium intensity. I was maintaining my weight with no complaints. Since I decided to begin training for local time trial events I have changed my three day training program to two hard intensity days and one medium intensity day. In the month I have done this I have droped an additional 5 lbs. of body fat while still having to eat more to make up for the harder workout days. I feel like I am eating too much at times but the scale tells me otherwise

Can you do any more than 150-miles? If that's all you can do, make one LONG ride a week, 50-60miles if you can. It's the 2nd-3rd hour of the endurance ride that really burns off the fat. The short 1-hr rides are best done at high-intensity, intervals & hill-climbs. Be sure to do warm-up & stretch/massage afterwards.

And be sure to eat enough afterwards for recovery to raise insulin & leptin levels after a ride so you won't feel hungry. Different types of food raises insulin different amounts, you want high-GI carbs right after a workout for best recovery. Coincidently it also suppresses hunger the best by raising insulin & leptin the fastest. Just don't eat too much and causing too big of an insulin spike and not so much that you end up taking in more calories than you burned off that day. About 400-500 calories after a workout is about right, then followed by a normal meal in a couple hours.

Starvation diets where you feel hungry all the time doesn't do much for weight loss because you end up binging. Spread out your meals perhaps to maintain a constant, but not low blood-sugar level.

During a ride, you will burn a certain amount of fat and a certain amount of carbs. If you replace the carbs during the ride and drink a good recovery drink after the ride, you will not be hungry. I regularly do a 25 mile-ish ride (around 1000 calories burnt) at night. I'll eat maybe 1000 calories total during that time, but that includes a snack and I don't eat a dinner. Which means I'm down somewhere around 300-500 calories for the night.

Longer rides are definitely better. It takes a while to get your body into fat burning mode. If it takes 15 minutes, you only get 45 minutes out of a one hour ride but 105 minutes out of a two hour ride. You will also see more appetite suppression with longer rides.

And be sure to eat enough afterwards for recovery to raise insulin & leptin levels after a ride so you won't feel hungry. Different types of food raises insulin different amounts, you want high-GI carbs right after a workout for best recovery. Coincidently it also suppresses hunger the best by raising insulin & leptin the fastest. Just don't eat too much and causing too big of an insulin spike and not so much that you end up taking in more calories than you burn off in a day. About 400-500 calories after a workout is about right, then followed by a normal meal in a couple hours.

What are some good natural examples of foods high in GI carbs for recovery? Thanks.

Danno, You confirm what I have suspected. During the summer I may be able to get in more than 150, we'll see. Winter, as I live in Bozeman, MT is pretty much an indoor cycling season. I will alpine ski some, and hopefully snowshoe some. Thanks